From Autosport: Doesn't sound too impressed with Texas! Cheers, Ian http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/92737
When I read things like this I always feel this is F1 is placating the auto manufacturers desires for a F1 race in America. I don't think F1 cares if there is a race here or not. They don't need it.
I wish F1 would bring back Watkins Glen or use Road America as they are true circuit's and WG has a F1 history. These two tracks are considered appropriate for other series but BE's expectations (ie greed for more money) concerning pits etc etc is rather rediculous. In all honesty I say screw an eastcoast race as the real racing fanatics of F1 are on the westcoast, heck bring back the Long Beach GP and I would be content.
He wants 2 USGP's so he can pawn off more of those useless Mclarens stateside.... Yes useless... http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&v=ahsIOVx93zs
+1 It wont last in Texas if history has anything to say about it. With Hong Kong and others showing interest life goes on without F1 in the US. It should be on the coast in the US. The population density and income mix with the amount of international residents makes sense. Does Tavo have a realistic plan to actually promote the race? Bernie's big gripe with Indy centered around that. That costs money and the sound of the news shows a gap in funding just for construction.
Ouch!.... I think that's a little harsh to our right coast cousins! I could be wrong, but suspect there's as many (percentage wise) fans on both coasts...... [Dunno about in the middle, as I've only ever flown over it ] Cheers, Ian
texas has the outside the track atmosphere that F1 craves... luxury hotels, fine dining, fashion (Neiman Marcus), entertainment, and lots of glamor.
Maybe they should build a track in Southern New Mexico that straddles the border. They could call it "Circuit of the Mexicos"
You mean the Dallas that's 200 friggin miles away from the racetrack ? Right up the street indeed ! I know everything is big in Texas but not many folks want to drive for 3 hours from their hotel to the track every day. Houston is closer, but let's face it, Dallas isn't a viable option for lodging for a race in Austin.
How about two street races. One in New York on Manhattan and the other in Vegas. A New York race would be a dream for bernie, but sadly it'll remain just that.
Sorry I have to disagree with you... The USA is one of the, if not the biggest consumer market on the planet... Consumerism requires advertising; advertising equal’s sponsorship... sponsorship equals money... The teams want the sponsors that want the US... Simple… the issue is that they don’t know what to do with it or how to keep it. It has very little to do with what the "auto manufacturers" want, its about what the teams sponsors and paymasters want, the manufacturers just want the prestige of being a part of what is seen, rightly or wrongly, as the premier racing series on the planet, yes they understand that there are marketing opportunities in he US, but has been proved recently, when the going gets tough they just drop their tools and bugger off, not caring what they leave behind.. that must mean that their advertising strategies are coming from a different directions and not dependant F1 in the US Really there’s only two manufacturer/teams that the racing comes first for and the road cars second (Ferrari and McLaren) Fact is that the majority of racing fans in the USA have little interest in cars that turn right as well as left, they want to sit in a massive autodrome and see the whole occasion, not have the cars disappear out of sight for a couple of minutes and then come back round in a different order (well, ok, one would like to think that there would be some overtaking!)...there’s only a small interest in the technology that F1 try’s to think it majors in and the average US racing fan just don’t want to understand it, its not laziness or ignorance on the fans behalf they just don’t care about it! It’s the fact that the in the US, sport is seen as a pastime, something that’s easy on the eye and the brain, a weekends event to relax from the weeks work. And like with other stadium sports like American football, they want to see the whole event, they want to cheer for and feel in touch with the sports stars they pay good money to go and watch, feel a part of it all, and then drive home in their Ford , Chevy or Toyota or shop in that shop, use that tool, eat that food or wear those boots in tribute to their favourite driver who has just won the race … Im not belittling them for that, that’s just the way it is. Some of you guys on here wont see it cause your passion is Ferrari, so you will have mixed feelings about it, on the one hand (or in your head) you will see the American point of view, because that’s what you are used to, what you have grown up with, its part of your lives.. Its bread into you, dare I say it brainwashed… But on the other (the heart) you will see it from the F1/Ferrari/technology POV because of your passion or interest in an Italian racing car team that makes a few road cars to fund the racing team, you will understand the technology because the cars and everything to do with them is your passion. (And before I get jumped on, I’m not being "anti-American"... Im actually descendent from... a load of your guys were over here between 1940 and 1945.. im descendent from what one of the boys left behind!) Put simply, F1's ideal of what their sport is about is way wide of the Americans ideal... Apart from 4 wheels and speed there’s little else in common… The F1 circus is way too far up its own backside to look at the consumer, the end user, and consider what they want from the sport; where as NASCAR and IRL is (sometimes) too far the other way... But they do look at it from the outside looking in, and they see and know what the viewing public want, and they understand it’s a spectator sport and therefore they realise that there has to be open paddocks and accessibility... there has to be a 3 hour television event on race day and a Friday night preview show.. Otherwise the fans will mentally switch off to the race series, and then perhaps switch off to a particular team/driver and therefore avoid the product that they are endorsing...they have got to keep that interest up. One of the reasons that the “big personalities” are championed in NASCAR is that they create a lot of publicity and all the time all you hear or see is that they drive for “insert consumer product” Chevrolet team and its plastered all over their clothing, and the fans buy into that more and more... Yet F1 looks at what they, the teams and drivers, want first and they wonder why most of the viewers don’t get it... in the US motorsport has now been a spectator driven sports event for a long time and until F1 take onboard some of what the US series have learned over the years about gaining fans interest and then holding on to it then they don’t have a hope in hells chance of getting a firm foothold on your (east or west coast) shores. F1 needs drivers to be personalities that talk their mind, that are human and not guarded or guided by a teams PR spokes person, a person that records and analyses every utterance then issues a press release explaining what’s just been said, fans don’t care about all that! Villeneuve and Montoya for example were two such individuals that spoke their minds, but they were often gagged because F1 try’s to be too “politically correct” and the teams are in fear of loosing their precious sponsors by the drivers being human and the two were eventually driven out of F1... what F1 as a whole doesn’t get is that the viewing public want to see the human side, that’s what the consumer buys into, Fans want to be able to get up close, feel a part of it all, they like the fact that the drivers are humans, they want to side with the nasty out spoken Mr big personality driver or the mild mannered popular all round Mr nice guy. Fans don’t want to be held at arms length, F1 just doesn’t get this, and then when the fans/viewer sees footage of a grid walk and there’s some big name star like Sly Stallone or Puff Diddly (or what ever the hell he is called this week) they see that as a sign it’s too elitist... Too high and mighty for mere mortals to get close too and they sit back in their chairs and mentally switch off, switch off with the realisation that it’s too inaccessible for them.. they’re sick of the sight of this film star or that pop star lying that they have been a big fan of F1 for years but have never been to a race, or even seen a car before... INDY cars used to have a certain Paul Newman sat in the pits, part owning a team, watching his drivers, here was a guy who was one of the biggest film stars on the planet yet at a race weekend an utter petrol head and fans could walk up to him and shake his hand and chat to him about motor racing and he would talk to them and not be all “famous” like some of the hanger-on’ers are encouraged to be in F1. Yet F1 just seem to want these people at their races to be seen, to raise the supposed profile of the sport, but to my mind all that it does is turn us mere mortals off.. Until F1 understands that they have to get rid of the closed door policy and be accessible to mere mortals, let the drivers be personalities and say what they like, then im afraid they are on a hiding to nothing… especially where American fans are concerned!
Is that why 250,000 fans were buying tickets in Long Beach in the late 70's ? You don't really know what your talking about, and your post is a long as a novel ! F1 left the states because of the greed of Bernie, not lack of race fans.
This it the member who wrote this in the thread about one driver replacing another at HRT he has the tenacity to tell me that i dont know what im talking about!.. Fact is F1 hasnt been near your home for years.. and i was getting my hands dirty on one about 3 weeks ago... the weekend after i stood in a pit lane for 24 hours and watched Peugeots and Audis battling.. Last weekend i stood about 5 or so pits along from a certain Mr Glikenhaus whilst his Multi-Million pound creation drove round Green Hell.. the reason there were 250000 at long beach.. back in 1978, is that TV hadnt really caught up with it all then it was still seen as a specialist sport which had to be travelled to to watch, Bernie was just then cottoning onto the posibilitys of TV and F1 ... F1 was watched "live" well after then.. right up until (and disregaring the recent Indianapolis races) the Las Vegas races.. where just 30000 turned up to watch... Making comparisons between F1 from the 1970's and the 2011's is like comparing Ferraris road cars from the same era.. its futile Also, laying the blame at BCE's door is typical of people who have no idea.. its very easy to blame someone at the head of an organisation when someone from the outside looking in has no idea of how it all works.. Bernard Made F1 what is is today, and when he negociates races in what ever country he does it with the best interest of F1 as a business at heart.. and, well im sure there are some industrilist types on here, if they had a CEO of a company who made the wrong decisions and went down the wrong route where they missed opportunities to make more money then they would be asking questions! Only the ignorant blame Bernard. And im sorry your attention span is such that you cant read more than 3 lines of text.. next time i'll insert some pictures for you!
Indeed, you don't. And another thing regarding American race fans, they don't give a damn about who finishes LAST in F1 (HRT) Once again you've proven you don't have a clue about American race fans, especially F1 fans. I could care less where you were last weekend, you're way off base when it comes to Americans and what racing they want. Bernie ruined F1 in the US by squeezing every promoter dry, if he had stayed with Long Beach it would likely rival Monaco for prestige in F1. It was his doing, that is a FACT. The race was well attended, and he pulled it for what ? A few more dollars is what, taking a quick buck and leaving Long Beach fans with crap Indy car racing. Funny that you bring up CEO's, only a CEO would look at Bernie as a success, true fans of F1 (especially American's) just show him the middle finger.
Its terribly patronising of you to assume that I dont know whats what! How have I proven that I dont know what fans want... i know very well what i want! So you are saying that Bernie screwed down the promoter for the last few $$ and thats why F1 doesnt go to Long Beach any more? sounds so very selfish... F1 teams are in F1 for profit, they are a business after all. They are there to earn money; its not a charity event you know... FACT Theres more to what happens in F1 that you or I know... ask anyone closely connected with F1 what BCE has done for them and you will get a response of nothing but praise, and not just on a business level, on a personal level he is a helpful and generous individual and will do anything within his power to assist any member of the F1 fraternity in an hour of need, just because a promoter refuses to stump up the allotted amount (About $150,000 in 1979) to host a race then its Bernies job to go and find someone who will.. That fee was the teams start money and back then BCE's cut was about 5% for negotiating it... so if the 1978 race had 300,000 attendees my maths say that only 50c from each fan actually ended up in Bernies (and subsequently the teams) pockets so id say it was the Promoter that being greedy not wanting to pay a percentage of the ticket value to the teams that had to make their way all the way out there to entertain them.. You have got to remember that in the 60s and early 70s the teams negotiated their own start money with the circuits, the teams standing and record meant that they could command less or more of a cut, all Bernie did was do the negotiating on their behalf and then divided up the takings/start money amongst them thats what he still does, his cut isnt much more but the numbers involved (Start money) are much bigger nowadays, thus his cut appears to be bigger. what he also did was make sure that the tracks they went to were up to standard, that the standards were acceptable and that safety was something important, prior to that the track owners and promoters would demand that the drivers go out and risk their lives on substandard tracks because they, the promoters, had paid them to.. Bernie was making sure that circuits were up to scratch even before opening up talks about who would race or even if, he had lost two very close friends due to poor infrastructure and safety standards and made sure that the track owners and promoters knew what was expected of them, actually this is another reason that F1 left the US behind, the US had series like USAC, latterly CART, NASCAR and F5000, Formula Atlantic and others that were not so demanding, not greedy, that certain standards were up to scratch, so the promoters concentrated their efforts in that direction and they got a firmer foot hold.. so if you want to blame anyone for F1 leaving the US behind way back when then blame the promoters for refusing to toe the line and accept the standards that were required to host an F1 race! And you should give a damn about who comes last, they giver the other teams someone to overtake. And you are wrong... Real Fans of F1 fully understand what Bernie has done for F1 to make it into the Global brand it is, they know the history, and if he hadnt gotten involved and put his own balls on the chopping block way back when then Grand Prix racing would have become what eventually happened with CART... you may not see that now because you are now in an F1 backwater.. But if you had 2 GP's a year there you would be singing a very different song.
bernie put it very succinctly when he said f1 doesn't need the u.s. it seems he's right. we all hew and cry to liitle avail. the reality is the money isn't there. if it was we'd all be talking about how great the race was. f1 always has been about the money. not the fans, not the cars, not the drivers. the money. everything else is subservient to the money. want a race in peoria? put up the cash and you're in. it's that simple.
You are correct of course but lately Bernie's income stream has been upset slightly. He's having to take a gamble on Texas, and the 25MIL fund he wants to tap into. Country's he's been fleecing yearly are starting to have money trouble, not to mention Dictators murdering innocent people in the streets, he might have to start offering a discount rate !
